Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive

     This is one of the nicer pedals I own.   It's in an unassuming MXR sized box, with two footswitches and five recessed knobs that you can turn with your nail or a guitar pick.   The two on the left are for the the red level and the brown level.  The two on the right are for the red drive and the brown drive.   And there's one in the middle for the EQ.   The footswitch on the left switches between the two channels and the switch on the right is for bypass.
     The knob for the red knob at noon is the least amount of gain.   Turning it towards the left, counter-clockwise, increases the gain with the bottom end shaved off for use with humbuckers and P-90's.   Turning it towards the right, clockwise, increases the gain with the low end intact, for use with single coils.   The knob for the brown gain works like a normal knob, as do the two level knobs.   Most people would use the brown knob for their lower gain setting and the red channel for their higher gain setting   Higher gain settings can be a little bassy when used with humbuckers, so the red channel with it's dual settings allows the user to get their settings right depending on their pickup choice.   Both knobs have the same amount of gain when maxed, so you can set the knobs however you want and have dual gain channels.
     The knob in the middle controls the EQ, but it works differently than a typical tone knob.   With the knob fully clockwise, the mids are left intact.   With the knob counter-clockwise, the mids are cut.   With this EQ set-up, you can go from a mid-cut sound with enhanced bass and high end to a more flat response with the mids left intact.
     On top of all of this, there are two trim pots inside the enclosure that can further shape the tone   One controls the overall gain of the pedal and one controls the overall presence.   On top of that, there's a resistor on the circuit board that can be replaced with resistors with a different value in order to add or subtract low end to the red channel's humbucker mode.All in all, it's the finer details like these that make this pedal a truly versatile beast indeed.
     I set the gain trim pot slightly higher than stock and the presence a hair less (my guitar has a brass nut and is a little bright already).   With the red knob all the way counterclockwise and the brown about halfway, the two channels offer two totally amp-like sounds, with the brown sounding like an AC-30 and the red like a vintage Marshall.   The overdrive is crunchy and amp-like, with nice low end, complex mids and an extremely sweet high end, with no trace of any artificial-sounding sizzle.   The feel of this pedal reminds me of how it feels plugging into an amp with it's natural tube distortion, the way the pick digs in as you riff.   And the distortion is very touch-responsive, plus as you turn down the guitar's volume, the pedal cleans up more so than most.
     This pedal offers some of the best overdrive/distortion tones of any pedal out there and is well worth the $225.00 it costs to buy one new.   It'll make you forget you're using a pedal, it's totally amp-like and like no other.